It should be noted that the lack of consistent or reliable data from the marine conventions or EEA counties inhibits adequate assessment of concentrations and trends of hazardous substances in European marine water

European aquaculture production has continued to increase rapidly during the past 15 years due to expansion in the marine sector in the EU and EFTA countries. This increase represents a rise in pressure on adjacent water bodies and associated ecosystems, resulting mainly from nutrient release from aquaculture facilities. The precise level of local impact will vary according to production scale and techniques as well as local and regional hydrodynamics and chemical characteristics.

The EFTA fleet increased slightly in terms of power (~ 3%) and decreased slightly in tonnage (~ 2%) but the number of vessels decreased by 40%. The slight decrease in tonnage in the EFTA countries for this period is preceded by an increase so given the whole period 1989-2006 there has been a 25 % increase in tonnage in the EFTA countries. The most recent new member countries Bulgaria and Romania showed a decrease in tonnage (69%) and number of vessels (56 %) in the period 1989-1995. The size of the EU fishing fleet is following a downward trend, with reductions in power (17%), tonnage (12%) and numbers (20%) in the period 1998-2006. In EU-15 and EFTA countries the average size of vessels has increased by 11% and 65% respectively, in EU-7 countries and Romania and Bulgaria the average size has decreased by 76% and 29%. Similarly, the combined fleet of the EU-7countries decreased its tonnage by 68 % over 1995-2006 but at the same time their number of vessels increased substantially (by 34%).

Most of the commercial catch is taken from stocks that are assessed. There is however a clear trend from north to south, with almost all catch coming from assessed stocks in the north to about half of the catch in the south. In the Black Sea no stocks are assessed. Of the assessed commercial stocks in the NE Atlantic, about one third is outside safe biological limits. In the Mediterranean, about half of the assessed stocks are fished outside safe biological limits.

Eva Wlodarczyk, expert on Water, Seawater
The seas around Europe are of vital importance to us, since historical times, they served as the source of food and employment for the people living around the seas and also as transport routes. Following the progress in the past century, the seas found new users; for example there was exploitation of marrying oil and gas fields, the extraction of sand and gravel from the sea bed, also fishing for the deep water species and even the extraction of minerals from the very deep ocean basins.